Source: Vatican Secret Archives Sec. Brev. Reg. 130 F. 70 (1587)
Citation:
Privilege to Giovanni Giolito di Ferrari for publication of Paolo Comitolo's "Catena in Beatissimum Job," and revocation of Jean Stratius' privilege in the same work, Vatican (1587), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
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9 translated pages
Chapter 1 Page 1
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[XXX] = illegible
Translation from Original Manuscript
To our dear son Giovanni Giolito de Ferrari, Venetian Book-Seller or Printer
Pope Sixtus V
[1-13] Dear son, greetings etc. Just as we have learned, you desire and intend to print and to set in type or to cause it to be printed and set {in type} and to publish for public use and instruction the work mentioned below, viz., a commentary on Blessed Job, translated from the Greek style into Latin by {our} dear son Paolo Comitoli, a priest of the Society of Jesus, with additions made through the said Paolo, and with explanations from various translated Greek texts and marginal notes of various selections and also with passages of Sacred Scripture quoted by different theologians and various selections of the sacred text and explanations of {those} various opinions, and also the medical advice of Girolamo Mercuriale, comprising two volumes; but you fear that afterward some other person will cause the said works to be printed in imitation of yours to your harm and prejudice.
[13-48] We, therefore, wanting to take thought for your indemnity in this respect and wishing to bestow special favors upon you and marks of favor, and judging {you absolved} from any {excommunication} etc., by motu proprio, not due to your insistence of the petition offered to us in this matter, nor due to that of another on your behalf, but from our unadulterated generosity and certain knowledge, and from the plenitude of apostolic power, after the said works will have been printed by you and examined and approved by the venerable brother, the Patriarch of Venice, every and each faithful Christian of both sexes, especially booksellers and printers of books or typesetters called by whatever name, so in the beloved City {of Rome} and her district as in the entire Papal state {both} directly and indirectly subject {to Papal authority} and all Italy, under {punishment} of a sentence of major excommunication lata sententia, from which no one would be able to be absolved besides by us and {whoever may be} the Roman Pontiff at the time, and for as long as {the relevant people are} directly or indirectly subject to our temporal dominion or that of the Holy Roman Church, and also [the punishment] of three hundred ducats of gold from {their} treasury, to wit: the first portion to the Papal Treasury and another to you and your heirs and successors or to those having either a right {to money} from you or from those{, i.e., your heirs,} according to the circumstances, and an another {portion} to the accuser, {and} the remaining {portion} indeed to the executing Judge, and also [the punishment] of the loss of the type and books to you and your aforementioned heirs and successors, punishments to be affixed in an unpardonable manner, to be incurred as many times as a violation will have occurred, by apostolic authority by the tenor of the present {decrees}, we quite strictly restrain and forbid that, in the immediately follow ten years, these works or one of them or anything of them in whole or in part in any form or change or transposition or even any other additions, scholia, glosses, and explanations for the purpose of reproducing those materials or referencing those {materials} or {things} similar to those {things}, as in Italian, so in Latin or any other language and at the urging of anyone because of any assumed pretext or clever thought in any place without your express permission and assent or [those] of your aforementioned {heirs and successors}, {they} dare or undertake to print or to cause to be printed or, except from permission and assent of this type, to sell {those works} having been printed or to put them {forth} for sale or to have or hold them in another manner unless you or your aforementioned {heirs and successors} shall have agreed to this, concerning which, {the assent} ought to be manifest through a leaf of paper written or signed in your own hand.
[48-60] Ordering each and every of our Venerable brothers, Patriarchs, Archbishops and bishops, and their dear sons in spiritual things, the Vicars general, and the remaining [men] stationed in ecclesiastical office who with whatever authority see to it or will see to it that, whenever they are required on your behalf or on behalf of your aforementioned heirs or successors, or [whenever] one of these [religious authorities] is required, they will order and cause all the aforementioned things to be observed, assisting you and your aforementioned [heirs or successors] in the [affairs] set out above by means of the protection of an effective legal defense, and that they will proceed and prosecute violators per the aforementioned and other sentences, censures, and punishments [that] seemed proper for each aggravation, however frequently, and with each and every right of appeal taken away [and with] the aid of the secular branch invoked if there is a need.
[60-80] Moreover, we decree by the said authority that whatever happens to be attempted, knowingly or unknowingly, to the contrary in these matters by anyone on any authority {is} without effect and in vain. Notwithstanding a certain other privilege concerning a printing made in the City of Lyon of the said work, a commentary on Blessed Job by {our} dear son Joannes Statius, a Lyonnais bookseller or printer, granted through us also in a similar form of motu proprio and out of our certain knowledge and from the plenitude of apostolic power and other {powers} in whatever way, and also {notwithstanding} our letters in the similar form of a {papal} breve, granted in Rome at Saint {P}eter{’s Basilica} under the Ring of the Fisherman on the eleventh day of January, 1586, the First Year of our pontificate, by the strength or protection of which previously executed {privilege} and {letters} Joannes Statius himself already printed but with many mistakes and errors, and therefore it is necessary to print that {work} again, and, for that reason and {stemming} from other worthy reasons which animate our desire, we completely revoke, make void, annul, and terminate the privilege granted and our letters granted, likewise, the contents of each, to the same Joannes Statius, through us, thus, as it is presented, as if they were adopted verbatim with the present things fully and sufficiently expressed, as to the work itself, [the work] of the commentary, with the things deriving thence [i.e., from the commentary], and if [least of all] ever [these things] should have arisen.
[81-88] And [not withstanding] any other apostolic [mandates], whether issued by special or general constitutions and decrees promulgated in universal and provincial and synodal councils and statutes and customs and strengthened by oath, apostolic confirmation, or whatever other strength, and privileges and also indulgences, and apostolic letters, and any higher matters and legal persons, in general or specific, under whatever tenors and forms, even a motu, with knowledge, generosity, and the plenitude of apostolic power, and similar things, and also {ones decreed} through a consistory, and other things to the contrary granted and confirmed in any way.
[88-90] Even if a particular, specific, and express mention about these things were going to be had, with those other things enduring in their strength, in this case at least we specifically and expressly derogate each and every one of them and whatever remaining things to the contrary.
[91-95] Moreover, we wish that full faith and the same faith that would be applied to the original letters {i.e., this privilege} themselves if they were presented or shown be applied to copies or imitations {of the letters}, even printed in the works themselves, signed by the hand of some notary public, and protected by the seal of someone established in ecclesiastic dignity to have full authority.
[95-96] Given in Rome at Saint Mark’s [Basilica] under the Ring of the Fisherman on the twenty-ninth day of August, 1587, the Third Year of our Pontiff.
If it pleases our Holiest Father, it may be expedited.
Cardinal Lancellotti.
Tho. Thom{as} Gualterutius.
Our Most Holy Father decreed that it should be accomplished. A{ntonio} Card. Carafa
Notations
In August 1587, in the fifth year
For Giolitti de Ferrari, the Bookseller
Indulged in printing the humble works with these things:
A commentary on Blessed Job, from the Greek into
Latin with additions,
and the Collecta Medicinalia by Girolamo
Mercuriale
Cardinal Carafa said that Your Holiness ordered it
to be begun and Cardinal Lancellotti saw to it.
Chapter 2 Page 2
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[XXX] = illegible
Translation (from Printed Edition)
Translator’s Warning to the Reader.
We have combined this book (first printed and typeset in Lyon), with an autograph manuscript, which we carefully copied out by hand. In this edition, which we have borne with great difficulty, we have discovered so many changes not only in words, but in meanings as well that we were forced to use this second Venetian edition, over which we preside, for the purpose of correcting those errors. Indeed, for this reason, those elements which were foreign [to the text] have been removed, and our own were restored; we have been able easily to cure those elements that had become corrupted. We have also explained faithfully several Greek meanings, which in the first Latin Commentary were lacking a Latin interpretation, based on a comparison with other and old Codices. Therefore we ourselves recognize this translation as if it were our own, and as the only legitimate translation of the Greek Commentaries, which translation has been set to type in the year 1587 in Venice at the house of Giolito, with us leading and correcting.
Chapter 3 Page 1
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{ } = supplied by transcribers
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Strike through = crossed out, but legible
[XXX] = illegible
Privilege
To our dear son Giovanni Giolito
de Ferrari
Pope Sixtus V
Dear son, greetings and Apostolic Blessing. Just as we have learned, you desire and intend to print and to set in type or to cause it to be printed and set {in type} and to publish for public use and instruction the work mentioned below, viz., a commentary on Blessed Job, translated from the Greek style into Latin by {our} dear son Paolo Comitoli, a priest of the Society of Jesus, with additions made through the said Paolo, and with explanations from various translated Greek texts and marginal notes of various selections and also with passages of Sacred Scripture quoted by different theologians and various selections of the sacred text and explanations of {those} various opinions, but you fear that afterward some other person will cause the said work to be printed in imitation of yours to your harm and prejudice.
Chapter 3 Page 2
Superscript = inserted by original or different author between lines
[ ] = inserted by original or different author in margin
{ } = supplied by transcribers
Bold Script [or] Script or scribble = written in a different hand(s)
Strike through = crossed out, but legible
[XXX] = illegible
We, therefore, wanting to take thought for your indemnity in this respect and wishing to bestow special favors upon you and marks of favor, and judging {you absolved} from any excommunication, suspension, and prohibition, and other eccliastical judgements, censures, and penalties brought by the law, or by men on whatever occasion, or by whatever cause, if anyone is implicated for any reason, we give effect to the present decrees to this extent, [either] absolving him of these things in turn, [or] judging that he will be absolved. By motu proprio, not due to your insistence of the petition offered to us in this matter, nor due to that of another on your behalf, but from our unadulterated generosity and certain knowledge, and from the plenitude of apostolic power, after the said work will have been printed by you and examined and approved by the Reverend Brother, the Patriarch of Venice, every and each faithful Christian of both sexes, especially booksellers and printers of books or typesetters called by whatever name, so in the beloved City {of Rome} and her district as in the entire Papal state {both} directly and indirectly subject {to Papal authority} and all Italy, under {punishment} of a sentence of major excommunication lata sententia, from which no one would be able to be absolved besides by us and {whoever may be} the Roman Pontiff at the time, and for as long as {the relevant people are} directly or indirectly subject to our temporal dominion or that of the Holy Roman Church, and also [the punishment] of three hundred ducats of gold from {their} treasury, to wit: the first portion to the Papal Treasury and another to you and your heirs and successors or to those having either a right {to money} from you or from those{, i.e., your heirs,} according to the
Chapter 3 Page 3
Superscript = inserted by original or different author between lines
[ ] = inserted by original or different author in margin
{ } = supplied by transcribers
Bold Script [or] Script or scribble = written in a different hand(s)
Strike through = crossed out, but legible
[XXX] = illegible
circumstances, and an another {portion} to the accuser, {and} the remaining {portion} indeed to the executing Judge, and also [the punishment] for the loss of the type and books to you and your aforementioned heirs and successors, punishments to be affixed in an unpardonable manner, to be incurred as many times as a violation will have occurred, by apostolic authority by the tenor of the present {decrees}, we quite strictly restrain and forbid that, in the immediately follow ten years, this aforementioned work in whole or in part in any form or change or transposition or even any other additions, scholia, glosses, and explanations for the purpose of reproducing those materials or referencing those {materials} or {things} similar to those {things}, as in Italian, so in Latin or any other language and at the urging of anyone because of any assumed pretext or clever thought in any place without your express permission and assent or [those] of your aforementioned {heirs and successors}, {they} dare or undertake to print or to cause to be printed or, except from permission and assent of this type, to sell {those works} having been printed or to put them {forth} for sale or to have or hold them in another manner unless you or your aforementioned {heirs and successors} shall have agreed to this, concerning which, {the assent} ought to be manifest through a leaf of paper written or signed in your own hand.
Chapter 3 Page 4
Superscript = inserted by original or different author between lines
[ ] = inserted by original or different author in margin
{ } = supplied by transcribers
Bold Script [or] Script or scribble = written in a different hand(s)
Strike through = crossed out, but legible
[XXX] = illegible
Ordering each and every of our Venerable brothers, Patriarchs, Archbishops and bishops, and their dear sons in spiritual things, the Vicars general, and the remaining [men] stationed in ecclesiastical office who with whatever authority see to it or will see to it that, whenever they are required on your behalf or on behalf of your aforementioned heirs or successors, or [whenever] one of these [religious authorities] is required, they will order and cause all the aforementioned things to be observed, assisting you and your aforementioned [heirs or successors] in the [affairs] set out above by means of the protection of an effective legal defense, and that they will proceed and prosecute violators per the aforementioned and other sentences, censures, and punishments [that] seemed proper for each aggravation, however frequently, and with each and every right of appeal taken away [and with] the aid of the secular branch invoked if there is a need.
Moreover, we decree by the said authority that whatever happens to be attempted, knowingly or unknowingly, to the contrary in these matters by anyone on any authority {is} without effect and in vain. Notwithstanding a certain other privilege concerning a printing made in the City of Lyon of the said work, a commentary on Blessed Job by {our} dear son Joannes Statius, a Lyonnais bookseller or printer, granted through us also in a similar form of motu proprio and out of our certain knowledge and from the plenitude of apostolic power and other {powers} in whatever way, and also {notwithstanding} our letters in the similar form of a {papal} breve, granted in Rome at Saint {P}eter{’s Basilica} under the Ring of the Fisherman on the eleventh day of January, 1586, the First Year of our pontificate, by the strength or protection of which previously executed {privilege} and {letters} Joannes Statius himself already printed but with many mistakes and errors, and therefore it is necessary to print that {work} again, and, for that
reason and {stemming} from other worthy reasons which animate our desire, we completely revoke, make void, annul, and terminate the privilege granted and our letters granted, likewise, the contents of each, to the same Joannes Statius, through us, thus, as it is presented, as if they were adopted verbatim with the present things fully and sufficiently expressed, as to the work itself, [the work] of the commentary, with the things deriving thence [i.e., from the commentary], and if [least of all] ever [these things] should have arisen.
Chapter 3 Page 5
Superscript = inserted by original or different author between lines
[ ] = inserted by original or different author in margin
{ } = supplied by transcribers
Bold Script [or] Script or scribble = written in a different hand(s)
Strike through = crossed out, but legible
[XXX] = illegible
And [not withstanding] any other apostolic [mandates], whether issued by special or general constitutions and decrees promulgated in universal and provincial and synodal councils and statutes and customs and strengthened by oath, apostolic confirmation, or whatever other strength, and privileges and also indulgences, and apostolic letters, and any higher matters and legal persons, in general or specific, under whatever tenors and forms, even a motu, with knowledge, generosity, and the plenitude of apostolic power, and similar things, and also {ones decreed} through a consistory, and other things to the contrary granted and confirmed in any way.
Even if a particular, specific, and express mention about these things were going to be had, with those other things enduring in their strength, in this case at least we specifically and expressly derogate each and every one of them and whatever remaining things to the contrary.
Moreover, we wish that full faith and the same faith that would be applied to the original letters {i.e., this privilege} themselves if they were presented or shown be applied to copies or imitations {of the letters}, even printed in the works themselves, signed by the hand of some notary public, and protected by the seal of someone established in ecclesiastic dignity to have full authority.
Chapter 3 Page 6
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[ ] = inserted by original or different author in margin
{ } = supplied by transcribers
Bold Script [or] Script or scribble = written in a different hand(s)
Strike through = crossed out, but legible
[XXX] = illegible
Given in Rome at Saint Mark’s [Basilica] under the Ring of the Fisherman on the twenty-ninth day of August, 1587, the Third Year of our Pontiff.
Tho. Thom{as} Gualterutius.
Chapter 4 Page 2
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Strike through = crossed out, but legible
[XXX] = illegible
Jean Stratius’ 1586 edition of Comitolo’s Catena in Beatissimum Job (privileged revoked by Sec. Brev. Reg. 130 F. 70), admonitio (“warning”) to the readers:
From the margins of this our Catena, in which the name of the Author of the Catena is written on several of the first pages, we have decided that each [instance] should be removed. First, because the name of each Greek Catena is absent. Second, because nowhere has [an addition] been written by us in our Latin. Finally, because [the work] mixes up and confuses the explanations of the Learned [Authors].
Translation by: Jane C Ginsburg